Hello,
Writer, activist, and lawyer Banu Mushtaq’s short story collection Heart Lamp has become the first Kannada title to win the coveted GBP 50,000 International Booker Prize in London.
Mushtaq described her win as a victory for diversity as she collected the prize along with her translator Deepa Bhasthi, who translated the title from Kannada to English.
“This book was born from the belief that no story is ever small, that in the tapestry of human experience, every thread holds the weight of the whole,” said Mushtaq.
Next up: Calling AI researchers.
While the tech industry has attracted top talent for years, recruitment drives, especially for AI researchers, have become more intense in the recent past, Reuters reported.
And companies are spending millions of dollars to bring these “ICs”—the individual contributors whose work can make or break companies—on board.
Speaking of the latest tech, Google introduced over a dozen AI tools and a series of research breakthroughs at its annual I/O developer conference.
Among other things, the firm has now rolled out Google Beam—a new AI-first video communication platform. According to Google, the system features precise head tracking down to the millimetre and operates at 60 frames per second in real-time, allowing immersive interactions.
Beam me up, Google!
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Mobikwik shelves BNPL play
- Breaking language barriers in tech
- Making organic impact on agriculture
Here’s your trivia for today: Which type of holiday is named after the Swahili word for ‘journey’?
Fintech
Mobikwik shelves BNPL play
Digital payments company MobiKwik is quietly pulling the plug on its once-popular BNPL (buy now pay later) offering, Zip, as tighter regulations and shaky economics force the startup to pivot toward longer-term, secured lending.
Key takeaways:
- Zip, its small-ticket, short-term credit line that Mobikwik seeks to discontinue, saw a sharp drop in usage during the March quarter. Its digital credit GMV fell by half, from Rs 306.8 crore in Q3 to Rs 153.7 crore in Q4 FY25.
- MobiKwik’s financial services segment suffered as a result. Revenue declined from Rs 55.79 crore in FY24 to Rs 40.28 crore in FY25, reflecting a 41% drop in ZIP disbursals
- The exit from BNPL comes as MobiKwik faces pressure to restore profitability. While the company reported a consolidated contribution margin of 30%, the lending vertical dragged performance in the past two quarters due to high upfront provisioning mandated by DLG contracts and weak disbursals.
Funding Alert
Startup: Mythik
Amount: $15M
Round: Seed
Startup: Zoca
Amount: $6M
Round: Equity
Startup
Breaking language barriers in tech
GUVI (Grab Your Vernacular Imprint), a startup based in Chennai, is imagining a world where tech talent isn’t dependent on English skills. This vernacular-first strategy has proven particularly effective for first-generation college students from non-metro areas.
“When you eliminate the struggle of understanding the medium, learners can actually focus on understanding the concept. That’s a major cognitive shift,” Founder and CEO Arun Prakash tells YourStory.
Democratising learning:
- GUVI’s courses are designed and delivered by a blend of in-house educators, linguistic experts, and active industry professionals. The content follows a layered language strategy that integrates native languages with technical English.
- The platform has developed over 600 self-paced modules in fields such as Python, Java, full-stack development, artificial intelligence, data science, cybersecurity, digital marketing, and emerging technologies like semiconductors and generative AI.
- GUVI operates on a hybrid B2C and B2B business model. On the B2C side, it provides self-paced and instructor-led courses priced from Rs 500 to Rs 1.5 lakh. The B2B segment includes partnerships with enterprises through which GUVI delivers upskilling programmes, compliance training, and certifications.
Startup
Making organic impact on agriculture
Azeedo, an agritech startup, aims to revolutionise agriculture by promoting chemical-free farming practices.
Azeedo Shield, a bio-formulation derived from natural phytochemicals, provides natural defence against pests and diseases. It can be used via the Foliar spray method (applied directly to a plant’s leaves) or via the drip irrigation method (released into the soil).
Weeding it out:
- The early pilot tests of Azeedo Shield have been received positively. In Tuljapur, a farmer used it on soybean crops and noticed a 15.3% increase in yield and made a profit of Rs 7,827.20 per acre.
- Bootstrapped with around Rs 25 lakh (grants included), Azeedo plans to raise about Rs 1.5 crore in the next two years in a pre-seed round. But that will come after the product is protected under intellectual property rights.
- Founder Koushik Bose decided to showcase the same product on the company’s website under varied names. “When we were pitching our product to many government organisations, most didn’t believe that one product could solve multiple problems.”
News & updates
- Arabic AI: The United Arab Emirates launched a new Arabic language AI model on Wednesday as the regional race to develop AI technologies accelerates in the Gulf. The UAE has been spending billions of dollars in a push to become a global AI player, looking to leverage its strong relations with the United States to secure access to technology.
- Cyberattack: British retailer Marks & Spencer said on Wednesday that a recent cyberattack, which left food shelves bare and brought online sales to a standstill, will wipe out almost one-third of its annual profits.
Which type of holiday is named after the Swahili word for ‘journey’?
Answer: ‘Safari’.
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